According to a Pira report, RFID and printed electronics will have a big impact on the printing and publishing industries 
A little longer than 80 days perhaps, but UV-cure inkjet is circumnavigating the globe at its own accelerating pace. | Providing communications links in the packaging supply chain with JDF |
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| Written by Lieven Plettink, R&D Manager Packaging Applications, Esko and Chairman, CIP4 Workgroup | |
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Packaging covers a wide range of end products, from corrugated boxes, folding cartons and bags, to labels, shrink sleeve foils, point of purchase (PoP) displays and metal cans. And it’s a completely different world from commercial printing, with many inks and substrates, a variety of shapes, utilising different print technologies and special finishing. The name of the game is to create packaging as fast as possible to get product to market quickly. Product development cycles are measured in months in years, but the packaging development cycles are often measured in weeks or days. There are many complex packaging workflows, but they are divided into two generic activities – those related to graphics and printing, and those related to the structure and die-cutting. The complex workflows must come together at some point, in the fastest possible way, with little room for error – remember, errors discovered late are very expensive. There are a number of players in the supply chain, including the consumer product company (CPC), the design firm, the prepress company and converters – and many different departments within those organisations. Traditionally there has been weak communication links between activities and weak capabilities for global follow-up and control. It results in a workflow that is error-prone, hard to optimise and hard to automate. The players in the supply chain hope to control the flow of specifications and data from the very first workflow step through the chain to reduce errors. One way to check for errors is to make the process traceable. If the system can be optimised, it can provide global status information of the process, checking that deadlines will be met, with rescheduling or reprioritising tasks when needed. Players also want to enable automated execution, where manual intervention (and the possible cause of error) doesn’t occur. Many think that JDF is the solution. Why is JDF important? Professionals in the graphic arts are spending more time preparing jobs and administrating job data while they are spending less time actually running production jobs. It means that the amount of information that must be collected, analysed and understood is rising steadily. So what is JDF?The JDF standard is overseen by the International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress (CIP4), a Swiss organisation founded in 2000. There are around 300 members, including MIS companies, software companies (workflow systems, design, prepress), device manufacturers (prepress, press, finishing) and users. JDF is simply a Job Definition Format, an industry standard for end-to-end job ticket specifications. It’s like Esperanto for graphics arts devices, allowing RIPs, imagesetters, presses, finishing and other equipment to ‘speak’ a common language. JDF job tickets describe a complete workflow or an individual process step. At some points in the workflow, it is desirable to pass on a small snippet of information. It’s delivered via a Job Messaging Format (JMF), an XML industry standard that allows devices to send XML packages with information such as job status, per cent completed etc. It also allows software that monitors or controls these devices to do so without having to learn each individual device’s proprietary ‘language’. The user doesn’t see JDF as a readable format. The code remains ‘under the hood’, manipulated by various vendor products – just like PDF code remains under the hood of Adobe® Acrobat. Typically, information can be divided into four types: Administrative information defines the job name and description, along with data such as job ID, job part ID, customer information, and scheduling information. Product information contains info about product structure, and quantities, and intent. Processing information provides data about workflow processes – the inputs, outputs and parameters. Finally, the audit pool traces how the project is proceeding. In an ideal JDF scenario, all information about a job will be entered once and flow automatically through the complete system, will automatically be enhanced with additional status information and be ready for analysis after completion. We’re not there yet, but we’re working on it. First results of the packaging and labels workgroupMuch of the JDF work has been focused on commercial printing. It is why a Packaging & Labels workgroup was formed: to oversee work on behalf of converters. The results have already been significant: the group developed packaging and label extensions within the recently introduced JDF 1.3 spec. Packaging is a very diverse industry-much more so than commercial printing. Some of the specifications include: 1. Definition of the specification of barcodes, allowing an MIS system to pass the product identification barcode definition to prepress, without re-keying information-thus preventing errors; 2. Resolution of a high-level definition of step and repeat, covering those typical for folding cartons, where a die layout has been created by the CAD department to make a physical set of tools for a conventional die-cutter. The step and repeat of graphics has to comply with this die layout to ensure that the printed media are die-cut correctly; and one more typical for labels, where graphics are stepped and repeated into a rectangular grid, letting an MIS system to pass step and repeat information to prepress for semi-automated or fully automated step and repeat routines; 3. Definition of the interface to a conventional die-cutting device, allowing an MIS system to specify the set of tools to be used for a job by a conventional die-cutter, so that using the wrong die can be avoided. Also, the interface to a digital die-cutting device has been defined, allowing the user to specify CAD lines (e.g. cut, crease, perforation) to be used by a digital die cutter; 4. Definition of the interface to a folder/gluer device, allowing set-up information to be sent from the MIS system to the folder/gluer; 5. Media definitions were made for corrugated materials and self-adhesive media. Although these steps are a good start, much work still needs to be done. JDF in actionThat doesn’t mean that JDF doesn’t already exist in practice. Connect Digital in Bury, one of the fastest growing flexographic reproduction specialists in Europe, installed a JDF-compliant packaging workflow from Esko to tie into their own MIS system, Topax. JDF support within Esko BackStage allows Connect to automate the links, speed up the workflow and reduce errors. The routing of the entire job is determined and monitored by Topax, from order entry to production, shop floor data collection, quality assurance, plate-making and shipping. Topax and BackStage form an impressively integrated system for production and administrative data exchange. The databases include all the customer and contact details, printers and press specifications and job details. Production supervisors create job tickets that define a sequence of ‘task’ processes – such as file import and normalisation, colour management, trapping, RIPping, output to digital proof; and output to high-resolution film or plate – automatically applied to the job. Dave Piercy, Production Director, says that they are definitely working faster at Connect Digital because of the JDF-compliant tools. All the folder structures are created by the job ticket, which saves time. There are fewer duplicates because of the JDF integration into BackStage from their Topax MIS system. For example, prior to this they had to retype all the parameters for dot gain. JDF has accelerated their workflow and reduced errors. As an early adopter of BackStage, Connect Digital clearly understood the advantage of digitally connecting the two systems utilising standard technologies like JDF (allowing the MIS system to send job specifications to the workflow system to drastically decrease errors) and XML (providing job status feedback to monitor the entire production process through their MIS system). The future of JDFAutomation is here to stay and so, too, is JDF. By presetting equipment using JDF, customers will benefit by reducing waste, device setup times, and relying less on highly skilled device operators. By exchanging management data using JDF and JMF, there will be better equipment planning, more knowledge of costs and production bottlenecks, and the ability to generate quotes based on realistic cost estimates. Seeing how we have progressed during the last four years, we can predict that the islands of automation should grow into continents. JDF-enabled prepress systems, JDF-aware presses, JDF finishing equipment and MIS or production control systems are feasible in the fairly short-term, allowing users to start small and continue building a system until ultimately the complete workflow is in place. Connecting all systems in the graphic arts workflow to a seamless, full JDF workflow from customer order – from content creation to delivery – may take a bit longer. And don’t forget: When the converter has finished the actual production run, the story does not end: a box is not an end product. It must be shipped to the CPC’s manufacturing facility where it is filled with product, palletised and shipped to its final destination. In future years, don’t be surprised to see CIP4 tackle these issues. |
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